Garments suitable to support and contain the female breast are known, such as brassieres, corsets or the like.
Generally, these garments comprise a band designed to encircle the thorax, a pair of cups for the breasts and a pair of flexible elongated support elements, called “straps”. These can be adjusted in length to adapt the brassiere to the user who wears it.
These known garments, generally at least partially made of a natural or synthetic fabric, give a poor support to a voluminous breast which tends to fall downwards by gravity.
For this purpose, special bras are known, called “push-up”, suitable to lift the female breast. However, these known brassieres give the breast an unnatural appearance and have a plurality of seams on the cup, which are unsightly, for example in case of use of tight fitting clothing.
Also known are special bras and similar clothing articles designed to minimize the movement of the breast during sports practice. For this purpose, the base material of such brassieres is relatively inelastic.
Examples of such bras are known from US2009081924 and US2005266770, which disclose bras with cups having inserts made of high-friction polymeric material in contact with the skin. The second document US2005266770 further describes a non-sports bra, the cups of which do not include anti-friction inserts, as well as a strapless top that includes such inserts.
However, these known brassieres give the breast an unnatural appearance, since the restraining structure of the bra tends to compress it.
From documents US2011143633, EP1770196 and DE10112251 bras are known which include inserts in polymeric material.